


The Witch's Hut

by mrysia



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-19 01:38:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17592278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrysia/pseuds/mrysia
Summary: In which a retired kage meets a surprisingly pretty witch.





	1. a tiny slug

A loud knock brought Kakashi back from his stupor. He was on a barely familiar bed in a room that he recalled to be in the inn he had lodged the evening before – a quick look at the only window confirmed it must have been morning by now. He rose his hands to rub the sleepiness from his eyes but only his right obliged, his left arm felt numb from shoulder down.  He examined it, a small cut on the outer part of his forearm looked too ugly for being there only for couple of hours. This was bad, Kakashi thought as he noticed an open medkit near him. He must have tried to clean the wound but dazed of in the process. A nasty smell hit his nose as he sniffed, this was really bad indeed – poison.

“Oh!” a startled sound followed a creak made by the door and Kakashi oh so slowly rose his head toward the entrance. A girl in simple yukata stood there, one hand covering her surprise the other still on the door knob. Another head appeared from behind the frame. Kakashi tensed.

“We’re sorry to disturb you, sir” the first girl, a small dark haired clothed in brown bowed in half. Still in that position she started to retreat.

“Wait!” the other one said to which the first froze and sent an alarmed look to her companion.

“Yuzu!” the first one was still bowing when the other – Yuzu – barged into the room. She hurried to his bed which only made Kakashi tense even more, his working hand inched towards his kunai pouch, which was silly because they were simple maids but his mind felt hazy from the poison.

“You are hurt, sir!” Yuzu exclaimed, her hands went to his arm and Kakashi would have moved it out of her reach if the damn arm hadn’t refused to comply.

“Ah, am I?” Kakashi replied lightheartedly, while the other one – not Yuzu – pulled Yuzu away from him and started whispering frantically to her friend.

“Don’t be silly, this man is a ninja, you shouldn’t interfere” she tried hard to keep her voice low but Kakashi’s heightened sense of hearing easily caught every word.

“Haru, it doesn’t matter, he needs help” Yuzu hissed at her friend while stealing glances at Kakashi.

“Ninja business is dangerous!”

“How? He barely even sits!”

“And it’s not our business!”

“How can it not be our business - if he dies on this bed guess who will have to clean the mess he makes?”

Kakashi cleared his throat at that and both girls jumped at the sound.

“I don’t intend to die but if I do I’ll ensure not to leave too much of a mess, I promise” he raised his working arm in what he wanted to be a reassuring gesture but it only brought a frown on his head face as he noticed it trembled. It must have been worse than he thought.

“You should see a doctor, sir” Yuzu said once she got over her embarrassment at being heard.

“I don’t believe any of doctors would help me” he replied with resignation. It was true, from what he suspected from the symptoms and the speed it spread it was not a simple poison.

“But you are sick, sir, you don’t look so well” she insisted. He didn’t feel well either.

“Don’t worry, I am a ninja” he said and to show it he stood up from the bed only to wobble and lean on the wall. Yuzu gave him a questioning look not buying his performance at all.

“Or maybe you could go to the witch?” the not Yuzu – Haru? – asked after some thinking.

“The witch?” he didn’t expect that.

“Yes, the witch, she lives in a hut just outside the village. Near the road to the west.” She replied not catching the disbelief in his voice. He believed in people growing bones at will, people with mouths on their hands and immortals but witches?

“But you need to be careful” Yuzu cut in before he opened his mouth to say that witches were just unlikely to help his condition as doctors.

“Careful?” he asked again feeling a bit like a parrot for just repeating the maids’ words with question marks.

“Yes, she’s just as likely to heal you as she is to beat you!” Yuzu explained.

“Don’t be silly, Yuzu! The witch will help, remember how she set your brother arm last winter?” Haru crossed her arms.

“Yes, but she also gave him a black eye…”

“That’s because he broke his arm by getting into a fight and she’s healed it afterwards!”

“My point exactly!”

“And remember when she made Suzuki sit in a corner for three hours?”

“She did almost poison all of her family that day with mushrooms and she was sitting there for that long so she could memorize all poisonous mushrooms in our country”

“All right but that time when she turned that guy into a frog, you know the red…”

“Girls…” Kakashi interrupted as their voices grew more heated.

“Sir” they bowed in unison due their maid’s instinct.

“So, you said the road to the west?”

“Yes, a small hut just outside the town”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

An hour later Kakashi found himself in the front of a small hut looking just as he had imagined from the description given by the maids. Really, he just wanted the duo to leave him alone as their high voices started to grate on his nerves as a headache started to kick in. He had not intended to visit the witch but as his destination was to the west he ended there anyway. He didn’t expect that witch could help him but maybe she had some painkillers for his head at least? The growing headache was part of the reason he had left the inn so abruptly.

The witch’s hut was exactly as described by the maids. Small, barely seen from the road if not for the well-trodden path that lead to it. It desperately screamed for a full renovation.

Kakashi sighed as he made his way to the door, his feet dragging with each step. There was a rocking chair on the porch along with a small table with a still steaming cup of coffee that indicated that the witch was probably at home.

Kakashi knocked at the door politely with his good hand and leaned over the doorframe as a wave of nausea hit him. After about 30 seconds with no answer he knocked again, turning his ear to catch the slightest sounds that would tell the owner of the hut was at home.

“I’ve been told the witch that could heal lives here” he called and he heard a muffled sound from the inside but no answer apart from that.

“I can hear you, witch” he said in singsong, the poison apparently affecting his brain now. He felt weak and moved to rest on the rocking chair. Apparently the witch wasn’t in the mood at the moment so if Kakashi were to die right here and now he decided he much preferred doing it while drinking coffee too. It was still warm, just right temperature for drinking but not too cold too.

“You make a good coffee… for a witch I guess” he called towards the window that was covered in curtains. He imagined that the witch was not happy with him by the sound of the curse that answered him. He focused on the mug, pink with little puppies in awfully sweet cartoon style. Not something he would associate with witches but he never met one before, so maybe that’s how they were.

“I wonder, I was poisoned, should I be drinking coffee? I remember it brings up your blood pressure, but it’s a good coffee, and your mug is quite cute, I am quite fond of puppies myself” he felt drunk, maybe feverish too as cold shudder run through him.

“You shouldn’t” came the flat reply. The witch had a nice voice.

“A little too bitter for my tastes though, mind borrowing me some sugar?” he asked casually, as if he were more of a guest than an intruder.

“I do” another reply. “How do you feel?”

“Ah, fine, thank you. The weather sure is fine this morning. You?” he replied in a carefree tone between sips.

“I mean, the poison?” she replied and Kakashi smiled because it seemed witches cared too.

“I got a small cut, it smells like rotten potatoes and my arm doesn’t move” he pondered “I think I have a fever too” he heard her mumbling potatoes and some.

“Have you taken any soldier pill after the cut?” she questioned him and Kakashi raised his eyebrows in surprise. Were witches taught about soldier pills in their witches schools or wherever one studied to be a witch?

“Oh.. uh, yeah?” he replied, quite sure now it wasn’t the answer the witch had wanted to hear but the coffee made him so warm and relaxed that he missed the opening of the door and as his vision went black he also missed soft fingers that took the mug from his hand.

 

 

* * *

 

 

He must have slept for a while even though he barely recalled going to sleep at all. He hadn’t recalled the bed on which he was laying as well as softly lit room he found himself in. He also didn’t recall removing his mask, so there really was a lot of things he didn’t remember doing he thought. The window indicated it was late evening, probably a night already. He tried to get up but his body felt numb and tired so he resigned himself to look around his surroundings. His arm still hurt a bit but was expertly bandaged.

It must have been the witch’s hut, from where he was he could only see a window, his bed separated by screen. There was a smell of herbs and food in the air and if he guessed right it was some sort of soup. He could hear a clinking sound of knife chopping vegetables. His stomach grumbled almost painfully.

As there really wasn’t much to look at, he mustered all his strength to will his arm to move the material of the screen. He felt proud of himself when he completed the task. He could now see the rest of the room, though only a part of it. There was a small table with two chairs and further he could see that it was connected to the small kitchen. And there was the witch.

She was humming while she moved around the kitchen with her back turned to him. She was wearing a simple murky red kimono that ended mid-thigh with leggings. She had long hair too, gathered in loose pony tail that seemed to be somewhere between the blonde and red – he couldn’t tell in the warm light. Was it orange? He moved his body for a better angle and the bed creaked. He stilled the same as the witch.

“You should rest” she said as she resumed her cooking, her voice commanding and he obeyed but still watched her from the corner of his eyes.

She really didn’t look much as he had imagined, granted the mug should have prepared him to expect someone other than an old hag, yet he was surprised to see, from the look of it, a young woman. At this point he was willing to bet that the broom in the corner of the kitchen was not a flying model too.

“This was a nasty poison, you know?” she continued while swirling in the pot on the stove. Kakashi tried to focus on the voice as something in his mind was tugging him that he should know the person it belonged to. But in his years (as in two to be precise) as peacekeeper after he stepped down from being Rokudaime Hokage he really did meet an awful lot of people. Had there ever been a witch though?

“You should be glad you came here, you’d be dead by tomorrow this way and I’m pretty sure the poison is not from around here so yeah, you’d be dead alright” she said happily. Kakashi raised an eyebrow at this. The woman had a strange sense of humor, he didn’t find the idea of his death a laughing matter.

“Then I am glad I came here indeed, thank you” he replied politely, the little bits of information provided by the maids in the inn put Kakashi on his best behavior just in case he’d be turned into a frog for being his usual ungrateful bastard self.

“Yes, yes, very deadly, did you know there is a specie of tiny slugs in the Mist that when touched with bare skin cause paralysis that spreads to your heart and stop it?” she dismissed his thanks and Kakashi once again was mesmerized by the familiar sound of her voice.

“I do now” he replied quite absentmindedly as he searched his mind for clues. His tone however was not to witch’s liking as she huffed again. He decided not to open his mouth ever again because he had never liked frogs and slimy things in general and was unsure what to say not to irritate her further.

“Are you hungry?” She asked after a while. His stomach replied in his stead. “Good, good, if you feel the hunger then it means you will not throw up. Probably” she added under her breath, though Kakashi of course caught it with his superior sense of hearing.

Kakashi craned his neck because if she had been indeed finished with the cooking she would now finally turn and he would see her face and be done with trying to connect the voice to a face. But somehow the lightning from the kitchen overshadowed her features while she made her way to his bed.

He heard a chair scraping on the floor and then she was sitting in front of him.

The woman was too pretty to be a witch, her nose was small and button-like, her jaw was not protruding at all, perfectly normal to be honest – slightly pointy maybe, but that only gave her face what some called a heart shape. And there were no warts anywhere, in fact her skin was smooth with no visible deformation. Actually, she did look kind of familiar, especially her eyes, big and green, with fair eyelashes, and her hair was kind of more pinkish than blonde or red from up this close. And there was a distinct rhombus just between her eyebrows exactly like Tsunade’s seal.

“You want me to feed you, sensei?” she asked a sly grin on her face and he thought the poison must have paralyzed his brain or something, because how could he not recognize her at once?

“Sa-Sakura?” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello.
> 
> This has been sitting on my computer for a while as I was unsure whether it should be a one shot or couple chapters but as it grew in length it seemed better to just post it in parts.  
> Will be updated every few days, I have the ending and most of it done but it still needs some work, hopefully not much.
> 
> See you next chap :)


	2. not so wicked witch

The witch watched him intently as he struggled with the broth, his hand still shaking uncontrollably. He was quite proud of himself that so far he hadn’t dropped the spoon with her eyes on him. It was disturbing really, with his mask gone and the way she was looking at him with such interest.

She had a look of satisfaction written on her face ever since she’d seen the look of surprise on his face when he’d recognized her. That only become more distinct when she realized how uncomfortable he squirmed under her scrutiny.

“You know, I won the bet it seems” she said and he paused with spoon midway to his mouth.

She kept looking at him, his face and he felt more naked when that time she’d performed one of his annual checkups at last minute notice and she had been touching his balls for any signs of testicles cancer. It had been the only time he had been so thoroughly examined and he’d kept his cool because he had been always the better liar of the two of them and he hadn’t bought her explanation that him being a Hokage put him in another bracket of patients so additional test are perfectly normal and according to Konoha Hospital guidelines. The disappointed look with which she’d searched his blank face while inserting a gloved finger in his ass reassured him that it had been all a ruse (and somebody else’s shout of “Told ya he’s asexual as can be, pay up” as she closed the door to leave him to put his clothes on had told him pretty much all).

“What bet?”

“The bet!” she replied smugly and when she noticed the blank look on his face she clarified - “The bet about what you are hiding behind your silly mask obviously” she smiled somewhat sadly at this but the look was gone in a fraction of second “I might have to return to village just to collect my winnings”

“What did you bet on?” he asked warily in between spoons. He wasn’t sure if he had been that hungry or the broth was that good though it hardly mattered at the moment.

“That you have a wart” Sakura snickered.

“It’s a beauty spot” he mumbled under his breath but that only made the amusement in her eyes more prominent.

“Let me have a closer look” she leaned towards him, her mint green eyes focused on his chin.

“As if you didn’t have all the time to do that while I was out” he turned his face away from her hoping that she would get that her scrutiny was unwelcome.

“Of course, wouldn’t miss the chance for a checkup” she smirked mischievously and Kakashi knew she remembered the only checkup she’d ever given him. Sakura leaned back on her chair and crossed her arms, her expression turning to more serious “You have quite a few new scars from the last time I’ve seen you. And they’re quite ugly, avoiding hospital again?” she asked with a frown.

“My family doctor’s been missing for quite a while” was his reply and Kakashi didn’t do anything to hide the bitter tone. He easily could have chosen the other answer, a much more humorous one involving another hint at another of Sakura’s bets regarding his sexuality, yet this one felt more pressing.

Sakura averted her eyes from him deciding to focus on the floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. There was again sadness in her eyes but at this very moment he couldn’t deny he was a bit pleased to have hurt her.

“I guess I deserved that, hm, sensei?” she replied her tone defeated and all his smugness disappeared, though he should have expected that his insert would not be received well. Unsure if he should answer to that and what would be a right thing to say he resumed eating. At least she stopped looking at him now and Kakashi gladly welcomed it.

Once he was done Sakura took the bowl from his hands with quick “You should sleep some more” to which he obliged as he yawned.

 

* * *

 

 

The next time he woke the room was bright with the morning light. He stretched on the bed, noticing that his body felt almost normal apart from general tiredness. He strained his ears but didn’t hear any sound in the hut, so he decided to get up. His back hurt in a way he associated with laying in one position too much.

He looked down to see that she must have decided to do a thorough checkup (he should probably ask her if his testicles had finally developed cancer first chance he got) as she had stripped him to his briefs. He hadn’t noticed his state of undress the night before when tucked in blanket.

He located his clothes neatly folded on the chair she had occupied the last time they had talked and once he reached for them he wondered for how long exactly she had been taking care of him – the clothes had been cleaned, a flowery scent hit his nostrils as he was pulling on his usual navy shirt along with his mask. He heard a creak coming from outside and once he put his pants and boots on Kakashi decided to follow the sound.

Kakashi found her sitting in the rocking chair the one he had passed out in, familiar pink mug filled with coffee in her hands. She turned to him with a smile, a strained one, vibrant green eyes peeking at him from behind her fair lashes. He looked at her, quite unsure what to do with himself, part of him had expected their yesterday meeting to be some sort of a dream, yet here she was – solid and very real.

“You are awake” she stated the obvious as a greeting. She motioned to a chair on the other side of the table – he recognized it as one of the two from the hut. Kakashi sat and raised his eyebrow at the second mug equally pink as the one in her hands and filled with coffee from the pot.

“I hope you still drink it the same” Sakura smiled at him as he nodded. She averted her eyes from him to look at the view in front of her. Kakashi took this as opportunity to study her profile.

She hadn’t changed much from the way she had been almost three years ago, at first glance the only visible change were her hair that now reached her waist. But from this close Kakashi noticed the tenseness in her body, the strain in her smiles, the barely visible frown that seemed to appear at some point yesterday and had stayed to this moment.

“It’s not polite to stare, sensei” she said not looking at him. Another thing that had changed, she probably called him sensei more times in the short time after their reunion than she had called him in a year before she had left. And it was something, because really, they had hardly talked much since their reunion.

“Don’t blame me, Sa-ku-ra-chan” he punctuated her name. He sipped his coffee, it was exactly how he liked, before continuing “It would be more creepy if I watched you sleeping, don’t you agree?”

“Fair enough” she replied, Kakashi raised an eyebrow at her response. Maybe that had changed too? He had expected her reaction to be a bit more indignant, a blush at least? Yet her expression remained wistful as she looked somewhere before her.

Sakura emptied her mug in last gulp and stood up, enveloping herself tighter in a blanket, before turning to him with the same meaningless smile.

“I’ll make us breakfast, I’ll call you when it’s ready” and she disappeared in the hut.

Kakashi realized that moment that sometime between last night and today Sakura made her mind about him.

 

* * *

 

 

The breakfast was simple fried eggs with tomatoes and bread but for the second time Kakashi wondered whether it was that good or he had been that hungry. He didn’t remember Sakura being a good cook, whenever the need for homemade meal had arisen he had been the one to cook it (he had once spent two months being an undercover chief due to a mission, earning a less know but still prestigious nickname Kakashi of the Thousands Recipes).

“That’s very good” he complimented after the first bite, but when she replied with “That’s just eggs, sensei” he decided not to continue with unnecessary small talk. Instead he took pleasure in her unease as he watched her intently, enjoying the reversal from the night before.

“I need to go shopping, rest now I’ll check up on you once I’m back” she said after cleaning up their plates.

Kakashi opened his mouth to say something but she was already gone.

 

* * *

 

 

Kakashi did not listen to Sakura’s prescription this time, instead he took his time to explore the small hut. Apart from the main room that consisted of the kitchen area, table area and his bed area there was a bathroom and another door to what he suspected was Sakura’s bedroom.

He started with the bathroom, he located his backpack and went for a shower, pausing for a moment at the cracked in half mirror. A pale face with much more prominent than usual bags under the eyes looked back at him. He wondered briefly how much he had changed in the three years she had been gone but seeing the same face every day he couldn’t tell. He examined his beauty spot in case it had changed at some point to be called a wart but found it the same as the last time he had seen it.

After a shower and a change of briefs he put the same set of clothes as before and proceeded with his exploration. The kitchen was small and clean, the fridge was almost empty, however there was an additional fridge that was filled with some vials with mysterious names on them. It seemed Sakura’s priorities hadn’t changed that much and it brought a small smile on his lips.

Kakashi had to stop his little exploration once he felt the tiredness took over him. It seemed it had been close one this one, the poison must had been quite potent by the look of it. Its effects were still holding up - Kakashi thought as he pulled his shaking hand in a fist in a weak grip.

Kakashi took out his signature book and took a place on the bed. It hadn’t been long until sleep took over him.

 

* * *

 

 

The unfamiliar voices pulled him from his sleep, at first they intersected with the dream he had which only made it even more silly than it had been but the moment his eyes snapped open he couldn’t recall its contents. Just bits here and there, an ugly hag that cried and cried, a wanderer that had lost something but couldn’t remember what and a startlingly similar to twelve year old Sasuke boy that had appeared whenever the wanderer had been close to uncover what he had lost.

“Please bite on this, I will try to make it as painless as possible but this is the worst part” a warm voice of Sakura reached Kakashi along with the whimper that must have been the reply to Sakura’s statement.

“On the count of three? Please hold him tight”

“Three… Two…” there was a snap and a cry followed by soothing voice of Sakura’s and unfamiliar woman’s.

The cries started to subside and Kakashi brought himself up to look from behind his screen.

There was a boy on the table - maybe ten years old or even less, he was quite scrawny. His mother, presumably, was holding his face close to her chest while Sakura tended to his leg.

She was standing in a way that allowed Kakashi a full view on her, her hands glowing with pale green chakra that lighted up her focused on the task face. It reminded him of another times and another places, her brows furrowed with concentration, lower lip worried. Sakura’s eyes flickered to him at the movement but only for a moment. The mother and her son remained oblivious to his presence.

Kakashi retreated and grabbed his book once his curiosity had been sated. He couldn’t help the tug of smile on his face after witnessing Sakura acting like herself. Maybe she hadn’t changed as much as she had been trying to show. He got up only when he heard the doors closing behind Sakura’s patients with words of warning to the mother.

He found her sitting in one of the chairs, almost laying with her face upturned as her head rested lazily on the back of the chair. Her forehead glinted with sweat but the expression on her face felt more familiar than ever since he had woken up the day before. If she had heard him and Sakura probably had, she ignored him, unmoving as he went to the bathroom to wet the towel. Only when she felt the cold and damp material on her arm did she open her eyes. With a mumbled thank you she brought the towel to her face and Kakashi sat at the other chair.

He visibly tensed when an annoyed pair of green eyes snapped at him suddenly.

“This boy was this close” thumb and pointing finger were almost connected “to be a cripple for the rest of his life!”

Kakashi relaxed once he had realized her irritation was not directed at him with an inward sigh.

“His family has a mill, it was an accident of course, but who in their right mind allows a child thresh the grain without adult supervision?” she threw the towel on the table. Kakashi felt strangely comforted by angered Sakura – this Sakura he knew. “He had broken arm, and don’t get me started on his femur! Completely shattered! If they went to that town doctor he would amputate his leg without thinking!”

“You were younger than him when you got your first kunai wound” Kakashi said as she ended her tirade. Her annoyance focused on him.

“It’s not the same, we are ninja” she snapped.

“But it is. You were a kid back then training to become a ninja just as he is going to be a miller in his father’s stead one day” he reasoned with carefully chosen words.

She fell silent as her head lolled back with resignation.

“Accidents happen, you don’t have to be a ninja to die young, granted you are rising your chances exponentially but they can happen either way”

“I know that, sensei” she replied still looking at the ceiling.

“The boy was lucky you were here” Kakashi added and at this Sakura looked at him but remained silent for another minute.

“I like it here” she finally said looking around her as she continued “I can help people here. I help people here”

She smiled wistfully now, looking at him yet not really, her eyes were on him, they were sitting with only a table between them yet he felt the distance between them more than when she had left their village three years ago.

“I’m needed here, sensei” she added with conviction and finality.

Kakashi felt an old anger waking up in him but kept his face blank. At this moment he really just wanted to spat in her face that she was needed elsewhere too. But his anger felt too selfish to voice so he only stared at her with detached expression.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for commenting and reading. 
> 
> This is by no means a story with significant plot so don't expect one, just a small story of reunion. 
> 
> And sorry for using the cliche mask-bet thing. 
> 
> Also, sorry for any mistakes on my part, English is not my mother tongue blah blah blah.


End file.
